War Fears Surge Among Britons, Doubling in One Month

Britons who say they are concerned about defence has doubled in a month, polling finds, although immigration and immigrants retains the top spot.

More Britons now say defence is one of the top issues facing the country than they did even during the Cold War, a survey reveals. Research by pollster IPSOS states the number of people who say defence is among “the important issues facing Britain today” doubled from December’s 12 per cent to 24 per cent in January.

British newspaper of record The Times which reported the research states the uptick is “one of the sharpest surges in unease about global politics and the prospect of war in recent years”, and that the research was undertaken shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decapitation raid in Venezuela.

While the surge in concern is pronounced, it is not evenly distributed among Britons, with left-wingers polled as considerably more worried about defence than conservatives, an inversion of perceived norms. Liberal Democrat, Labour, and Green Party voters were most likely to name defence as a top worry at around 40 per cent, while Conservative Party supporters were more relaxed at 25 per cent.

Supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK were least likely to say defence and foreign affairs were one of the most important problems facing Britain right now, with just 12 per cent saying so. This may be a function of the propensity of Reform voters to believe immigration and immigrants is the most important issue facing Britain. Indeed, despite defence’s jump to double its numbers, nationwide immigration and immigrants is the top concern for all voters at 41 per cent, slightly down from 46 per cent in December.

Defence worries are also not equal among other demographics, with The Times stating the research shows the older cohorts are more likely to cite it as a major issue, while just six per cent of 18-24 year olds said so.

Pollster IPSOS publishes historic results for the same survey, clearly showing that at 24 per cent Britons are at close-to-record levels of interest in defence and security matters. Indeed, beyond a couple of short-term peaks linked to world events, it has generally barely registered for decades, and even in the late Cold War years people choosing defence as a top policy area trended below ten per cent.

The highest single-month spike for defence was in January 1991 at 65 per cent when the newspapers were dominated by the reorganisation of Europe post-Berlin Wall, the collapse of the USSR, and the beginning of the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm. More recently, defence saw a one-month spike to 35 per cent in March 2022, immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The results from this period underlines that the wider public had no notion or concerns about a coming Russian attack with Britons saying defence was a top priority as low as two per cent the months before the invasion. Interest soon waned too, with defence concern dwindling to single figures by 2023.